Time to dust off business continuity plans in preparation for a global pandemic

Although symptoms of swine flu are mild and the threat from a global pandemic has been widely over-hyped by the world media, op risk managers should be looking to ensure they have sufficient contingency plans in place.

If the media are to be believed on the threat posed by swine flu currently gripping the western world, we should all be rushing to the hospital at the first sign of a slight cough. But regardless of the hysteria, the threat of a global pandemic has brought home the need for operational risk managers to dust off their preparation plans, to make sure they are up-to-date and sufficient to ensure minimal disruption should the worst-case scenario come to pass. Given the damage that SARS created in